Naturopathic medicine is the future of healing, and personalized nutrition is the future of naturopathic medicine. An individualized approach to the patient is a key to unlocking many of the latent healing powers of the body. It allows the physician the ability to treat the patient, not the disease, a tenet of healing wisdom as ancient as its source, the great physician Hippocrates. Welcome to the official website of the Center of Excellence in Generative Medicine, (COE) where Dr. Peter D'Adamo and his staff of expert physicians use a blend of unique cutting-edge technologies and time-honored healing wisdom to help each patient achieve their ultimate health goals. Be it the management of complex diseases, metabolic and weight-loss support, anti-aging strategies, or general health optimization and prevention; the COE, a recognized world-leader in naturopathic medicine is here to help.

Meet The People of The COE

At the Center of Excellence Dr. Peter D'Adamo has assembled a team of some of the brightest minds in natural medicine. All staff physicians have been thoroughly trained by Dr. D'Adamo and have completed or are completing a rigorous two year residency.

Scheduling An Appointment

An individualized approach to the patient is a key to unlocking many of the latent healing powers of the body. Under the guidance of Dr. D'Adamo COE patients enjoy the benefits of cost effective and cutting-edge treatment while also one-to-one care and support.

Learn More About The COE

The Center of Excellence uses software, treatments and formulations that have been programmed and custom-designed by Dr. D'Adamo. These tools are unique to the COE and insure a truly personalized, one-of-a-kind patient experience.

Indican testing can be a useful tool for monitoring degeneration or improvement in digestive efficiency of your system in dealing with protein. Indican is formed by an abnormal metabolism of tryptophan. Indican is a by-product of putrefaction (protein degradation), usually in the intestine, but possibly in other locations as well. Putrefaction is the anaerobic bacterial decomposition of proteins – not ideally the healthy way for your body to deal with proteins.

Share this:

In December, COE staff physician Dr. Robert Brody travelled to Panajachel, Guatemala with Naturopathic Medicine for Global Health (NMGH) to provide medical care to people in this poverty stricken area. NMGH is an organization that promotes naturopathic medicine as a feasible and costeffective means of healthcare in developing countries with a unique, sustainable health care model.

While there, Dr. Brody supervised naturopathic medical and physician assistant students as they treated patients at the main clinic in Pahajachel and made home visits to bedridden individuals. Even the local police and fire department staff were treated to well-care from Dr. Brody and his team.

Dr. Brody learned about Naturopathic Medicine for Global Health while he was a medical student and started a local chapter at his school, eventually being voted student chapter president of 2014. He wanted to participate in this program because he believes everyone should have access to naturopathic health care and wanted to share his passion for helping people outside of the US.

“It’s humbling to see the socioeconomic state of the Guatemalan people, most living off of only a few dollars a day. The population, however, are some of the most loving and appreciative people I have ever known. They are truly thankful for any and all help they receive. With the donations I collected from Dr. D’Adamo and the Center of Excellence, I was able to help these people with their medical needs.”

Dr. Brody was particularly moved by one woman he treated during his mission. “The most exciting part of this experience would have to be my first and last patient of the mission. She was a diabetic patient who wasn’t taking her insulin regularly and was bed stricken. She was told by her doctors that if she opened her eyes that they would pop out. When I met this patient, she had no vitality. With a combination of vitamins, minerals, herbs, a homeopathic drug, and support from her family, I was able to lower her blood glucose back into normal range and find an insulin regimen that would work for her. A week after I left she was able to get out of bed and is currently walking around.”

While the experience was rewarding, Dr. Brody says that there are many challenges facing poverty-stricken Guatemalans when it comes to health care and diet. “The social economic toll in Guatemala is a hard factor to confront. When it comes to diet and exercise most of the patients I have seen are just trying to survive. They work really hard for the little bit of money they receive and this makes talking about diet a really hard task. Most of the people are eating to survive. Eating what they can when they can. While starvation is a concern in Guatemala most people have just enough to buy rice, corn, and some of the other basics. Most of my work I did down in Guatemala, focused on using blood type as one of my treatment tools. If the patient did know their blood type, I would be able to prescribe the proper supplement in order to activate certain molecular pathways that need to be regulated in certain blood types. For the few patients who had a more affluent income sources I focused on making small changes to their diet (i.e., Blood Type O’s avoiding wheat and Blood Type B’s avoiding chicken, etc.)”

You can learn more about Naturopathic Medicine for Global Health by visiting their website: www.nmghus.org

Dr. Robert Brody

Share this:

Spring flowers breaking through the still cold earth are powerful evidence of rebirth. Warm sun pushing out the last vestiges of winter’s cold and longer days help us forget the season of darkness. Spring is truly a time of transformation and new beginnings.

What better way to aid this transformation than with a healthy detox?

Ancient Ayurveda and Chinese Medicine tells us Spring is the time to detox and reset, the ideal time to lighten our beings, clear out heavy winter foods accumulated over months, and start truly fresh.

What happens to the body during a detox?

Our bodies naturally detox via the skin, lymph, lungs, kidneys and most of all, the liver. Today, our liver is burdened by contaminants from commercially farmed food, processed foods, pharmaceutical medications, what we put on our bodies, and the pollutants in our homes and external environments. Winter’s inertia allows toxins to build up, especially in fat stores, and causes the liver to slow down.

During detox, the liver converts these toxins to substances able to be eliminated by water. It’s a complex process and takes time. If people detox too quickly they’ll produce toxic metabolites far worse than the originals being discarded. This is why arduous fasting is not the best way to detox. The very best way is deceptively simple.

Start by eating only foods beneficial or highly beneficial for your blood type or GenoType®, and take your recommended supplements. Then, add herbal supplements to help the liver in the detoxification process. Our COE favorite for liver support is Harmonia, and here is why:

Harmonia is abundant in Chlorella, a fresh-water, single-celled algae that benefits the immune system and aids in processing toxins for removal

Harmonia further supports the liver with Dandelion, Parsley and Larch Arabinogalactans

Harmonia has anthocyanin, the main fruit phytochemical found in blueberry and tart cherry. Anthocyanin gives them color, and gives us superior antioxidant protection.

Harmonia is best used when you feel flu-like symptoms corresponding to the first few days of detox. What you are feeling are the toxins freed up and beginning to eliminate. Harmonia can help with any discomfort.

Other Recommendations:

WATER. Start your day with a tall glass of water and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice.
Drink water through the day. Water cleanses the body and helps with cell regeneration.
Water is crucial for diluting the toxins freed into the bloodstream during detox. Aim
for 8-10 glasses per day.

Purchase organic and whole foods versus processed.

Walking is the ideal support to a detox.

Use sauna or hot baths with Epsom salt to draw toxins out.

Sleep and truly rest as much as you can during detox time.

Safe Detox and Happy Spring!

Dr. Maria Zangara

Share this:

“I am afraid that Peter’s merits are not estimated enough in the scientific world. Therefore it seems to me necessary, not only to promote his concept here in Europe, but also to tell him that I acknowledge him as one of the most creative scientists in the Western world.”

A chemical reaction occurs between your blood and the foods you eat. This reaction is part of your genetic inheritance. It is amazing but true that today, in the twenty first century, your immune and digestive systems still maintain favoritism for foods that your blood type ancestors ate.

We know this because of a factor called lectins. Lectins, abundant and diverse proteins found in foods, have agglutinating properties that affect your blood and the lining of your digestive tract. Lectins are a powerful way for organisms in nature to attach themselves to other organisms in nature. Lots of germs, and even our own immune systems, use this super glue to their benefit. For example, cells in our liver’s bile ducts have lectins on their surfaces to help snatch up bacteria and parasites. Bacteria and other microbes have lectins on their surfaces as well, which work rather like suction cups, so that they can attach to the slippery mucosal linings of the body. Often the lectins used by viruses or bacteria can be blood type specific, making them a stickier pest for people of that blood type.

So, too, with the lectins in food. Simply put, when you eat a food containing protein lectins that are incompatible with your blood type antigen, the lectins target an organ or bodily system (kidneys, liver, gut, stomach, etc.) and can begin to interact with the tissues in that area.

Here’s an example of how a lectin agglutinates in the body. Let’s say a Type A person eats a plate of lima beans. The lima beans are digested in the stomach through the process of acid hydrolysis. However, the lectin protein is resistant to acid hydrolysis. It doesn’t get digested, but it stays intact. It may interact directly with the lining of the stomach or intestinal tract, or it may get absorbed into your blood stream along with the digested lima bean nutrients. Different lectins target different organs and body systems.

Once the intact lectin protein settles someplace in your body, it literally has a magnetic effect on the cells in that region. It clumps the cells together and they are targeted for destruction, as if they, too, were foreign invaders. This clumping can cause irritable bowel syndrome in the intestines or cirrhosis in the liver, or block the flow of blood through the kidneys – to name just a few of the effects. Lectins can also act as ‘fake hormones,’ latching onto the receptor for a hormone and either blocking the normal action of the hormone (this is called an ‘antagonist’) or revving up the hormone receptor non-stop (termed an ‘agonist.’)

Lectins: A Dangerous Glue

You may remember the bizarre assassination of Georgi Markov in 1978 on a London Street. Markov was killed by an unknown Soviet KGB agent while waiting for a bus. Initially, the autopsy could not pinpoint how it was done. After a thorough search, a tiny gold bead was found embedded in Markov’s leg. The bead was found to be permeated with a chemical called ricin, which is a toxic lectin extracted from castor beans. Ricin is so potent an agglutinin that even an infinitesimally small amount can cause death by swiftly converting the body’s red blood cells into large clots which block the arteries. Ricin kills instantaneously.

Lectins are a type of molecular Velcro. On the left is a slide of a normal blood smear. On the right a blood sample after agglutination.

Fortunately, most lectins found in the diet are not quite so life threatening, although they can cause a variety of other problems, especially if they are specific to a particular blood type. For the most part our immune systems protect us from lectins. Ninety-five percent of the lectins we absorb from our typical diets are sloughed off by the body. But at least 5 percent of the lectins we eat are filtered into the bloodstream, where they react with and destroy red and white blood cells. The actions of lectins in the digestive tract can be even more powerful. There they often create a violent inflammation of the sensitive mucous of the intestines, and this agglutinative action may mimic food allergies. Even a minute quantity of a lectin is capable of agglutinating a huge number of cells if the particular blood type is reactive.

Signs that you might be experiencing problems from lectins in your diet:

Bloating and flatulence after meals

Changes in bowel habits

Achy joints and muscles

Hormonal fluctuations

Skin eruptions

Fatigue and tiredness

This is not to say that you should suddenly become fearful of every food you eat. After all, lectins are widely abundant in legumes, seafood, grains, and vegetables. It’s hard to bypass them. The key is to avoid the lectins that agglutinate your particular cells—determined by your blood type. For example, wheat germ agglutinin, the most common lectin found in wheat, binds to the lining of the small intestine, causing substantial reactions and irritation in some blood types – especially Type O.

Lectins vary widely, according to their source. For example, the lectin found in wheat has a different shape from the lectin found in soy, and attaches to a different combination of sugars; each of these foods is dangerous for some blood types, but can sometimes be beneficial for others. In the case of blood type A and soy, the lectin in soy can actually help the immune system keep guard against cellular changes that could go on to be problematic.

Many people with joint problems feel that avoiding the nightshade vegetables such as tomatoes, eggplant, and white potatoes seem to help their symptoms. That’s not surprising, since most nightshades are very high in lectins.

A Few Common Foods That Contain Problem Lectins For Each Blood Type

Type A

Type B

Type AB

Type O

Lima bean

Tomato

Eggplant

Garbanzo bean

Chicken

Corn

Soy

Lentil

Chicken

Corn

Bell pepper

Fava bean

Wheat

Soy

Peanut

Kidney bean

Lectins: A Summary

Lots of information on lectins can be found on the internet. Unfortunately, the great majority of it is either extremely technical or just wrong to some degree or another. One common misconception is that all lectins in foods are inactivated either by heating, or through the process of digestion. This is true, but only to a certain degree. Some lectins, such as the lectins from beans, are usually rendered inactive by slow and long cooking, but this may not result in all lectins being inactivated. Studies have shown that a percentage does tend to resist destruction, despite heating. Other lectins, such as the lectin from bananas, actually become more potent after heating. Digestive juices can inactivate lectins, but many people simply do not have the levels of stomach acid to do this. If you currently suffer from digestive problems, it is more than likely that you have some degree of lectin sensitivity, and following the diet prescribed for your blood type is the best way to start the healing.

Lectin Blocking with Deflect

Deflect is a natural product I designed composed of ‘blocking sugars’ designed to interfere with the adherence of troublesome dietary lectins. Since many lectins are ABO blood type specific, there are four different Deflect formulas: one for each blood type. The blocking sugars in Deflect can be considered ‘sacrificial molecules’ that attach to carbohydrate receptors on the lectins, rendering them unable to bind to the cells of the body. The Deflect formulas provide a source of free blocking amino sugars, which bind and block lectins before they can attach to the cells. Since each blood type is susceptible to lectins with different carbohydrate specificities, I designed formulas to block lectins by using mono and polysaccharides specific for each blood type.

Share this:

Here at the Center of Excellence, we routinely perform an hour-long Hydrogen Breath Test. Though this isn’t a new test, few physicians perform it. During all visits, we have each patient blow once into a hydrogen breath machine to get a baseline hydrogen breath measurement. What we look for is an uneven distribution of good bacteria versus bad bacteria. When there is an abundance of bad bacteria, it is called dysbiosis. Common symptoms of dysbiosis include gas, bloating, diarrhea, constipation, heart burn, fatigue and nausea. If a patient blows a score of 20 parts per million (PPM) or above, we ask them to come back for another office visit to do the full hour-long Hydrogen Breath Test.

How does a Hydrogen Breath Test work?

The test works by monitoring the amount of hydrogen gas that is exhaled during the course of 12 seconds. If the result is in the range of 20-30 PPM, it indicates an excessive amount of “bad” bacteria in the digestive tract. While there are bacteria all over the body from the skin to the digestive tract, they are usually beneficial. When the system gets disrupted, the digestive tract changes and non-commensal bacteria (aka bad bugs) take up residence. These non-commensal bacteria start “stealing” food and supplies and wreaking havoc on the body. While these cells are stealing supplies, they start producing hydrogen gas as a waste product.

What do the results mean?

If the test comes back low, it means one of two things:

You are healthy and do not have dysbiosis

You have dysbiosis and might have a strain of bacteria that produce methane instead of hydrogen (very few patients fall under this category

If the test comes back elevated, it can mean a couple things:

You have dysbiosis

You have just recently consumed food

Depending on how high your hydrogen level is, we may recommend coming back for a full hydrogen test. A full hydrogen test includes fasting for 12 or more hours followed by taking a baseline hydrogen blow. After we take the baseline blow, the patient drinks a sugary liquid called lactulose. We then take hydrogen breath readings every 15 minutes for the next hour. Lactulose is an undigestible synthetic sugar which bad bacteria love to eat. When the bad bacteria consume the lactulose, they produce hydrogen as they try to digest this undigestible sugar.

The interesting part about the full test is we can gauge where the dysbiosis is depending upon when the result appears. For example, if after the first 15 minutes of drinking lactulose, your hydrogen blow result is high, this indicates bacteria in your upper GI tract. If your hydrogen blow results are high after 45 minutes, it would indicate dysbiosis in the lower GI tract. When a Lactulose test comes back consistently high (20 or above), it can indicate a diagnosis of Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth aka SIBO.

How do we treat dysbiosis?

While there are many different ways to treat someone with dysbiosis, we always use an individualized approach. We are all unique and thus should be treated as such. We usually first address Dysbiosis with diet. Changing your SWAMI Diet helps the good bugs proliferate. We will also use probiotics to help address repopulation of the GI tract. Dr. D’Adamo formulated a Probiotic line called Polyflora after 30 years of clinical practice. Polyflora is filled with the bacteria that normally populate individual blood type’s GI tracts. In 2013 Drs. Peter D’Adamo and Natalie Colicci did a small investigation to determine if the Blood Type diet can affect SIBO. They found that patients who followed the diet have a decreased amount of hydrogen levels. Click Here to See the Study

Although there are many symptoms associated with dysbiosis and SIBO, with the proper protocol, this is something that can be treated.

Share this:

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a common disorder that occurs in the winter months, when days are shorter, darker and grayer. The lack of sunlight is thought to contribute to symptoms of SAD. People suffering from SAD undergo extreme changes in mood that fluctuate with the seasons, as if they were split between a ‘summer person’ and a ‘winter person.’ For most who suffer, the syndrome begins gradually in late August or early September, and corresponds with the diminishing light at this time of year. Discomfort continues through March or early April, when the symptoms begin to dissipate as the hours of daylight lengthen.

Share this:

SWAMI provides you with a detailed diet report and recipe collection, tailored to your unique needs.

The renowned author of a series of wildly successful nutrition books, including the New York Times bestseller Eat Right For Your Type, Dr. D’Adamo was beginning to see the limitations of the traditional static book format when it came to developing his brand of highly personalized diets. Now, books are OK when it comes to one-size-fits-all diets and even individualized diets based on single genes, like blood type. You just turn to one of the four chapters that describes your particular type and away you go. But what happens when we try to incorporate 5, 10 or even 20 different genetic markers? How could he ever capture biochemical individuality inherent in each of us with such an inflexible format?

Fortunately, Dr. D’Adamo has had a life-long interest in computer programming and it soon became apparent that his beloved hobby could provide the answer: Why not write a computer program that allowed each individual to develop their own one-of-a-kind diet? So four years ago, Dr. D’Adamo began to write computer code. Lots of it. What resulted is undoubtedly the most sophisticated, yet easy-to-use, dietary software available, called SWAMI.

SWAMI Mobile App

Incorporating blood types, biometric measurements and fingerprint data SWAMI XP2 allows your COE physician to add an astounding amount of new detail to your dietary recommendations and supplies you with an incredibly detailed, reader friendly and versatile report. Swami XP2 enables your physician to generate an estimated 50-page personalized dietary report out of your printer after 12,600,000 individual calculations performed on 225 individual nutrient values found for each of 800 different foods, all matched to the results of your measurements and intake facts.

If SWAMI did nothing besides generate state-of-the-art nutrigenomic diets it would still be a landmark piece of nutritional software. But Dr. D’Adamo teaches and maintains a full clinical practice, so he knew from the start that simply giving his patients information about whether a certain food was good or bad would not be enough for many people. Most of us need a context in which to follow a diet: What to cook and how to meal-plan. This type of information is often critical to maintaining the program long enough to allow for the results to set in. As an added bonus, SWAMI come bundled with a complete online Mealplanner that can call upon a universe of over 2000 recipes that are prescreened for your needs. In addition to allowing you to plan your weekly meals, the Mealplanner will generate any of the recipes you select for printout and even provide you with a shopping list for all the necessary ingredients.

Use a smart phone? SWAMI will also provide you with a link to an app that allows you to check your diet values while shopping or eating at restaurants.

Share this:

At the Center of Excellence I teach a series of classes in “Generative Medicine,” a specialty that resulted from my work with computers and networks. In the class our focus is primarily biochemical and genetic networks, but in fact, networks surround us. From our friends on social media, to our family support systems, most relationships, however direct they may appear, are in fact webs of connections, interdependent upon one another.

Networks experience, gauge, and react. A cellular network might control how a microbe responds to a change in its environment, say a drop in its nutrient supply. The microbe might, for example, alter its gene expression to make a new protein that allows it to change its movement pattern and perhaps explore a different location. Our brain’s neural network processes inputs from our senses and converts the information into thought patterns that might put a grin on our face when a loved one comes into sight.

Share this:

We’ve all had that feeling. The sensation that our legs were on fire as we struggle to cycle to the top of a hill, or do those last two crunches. You know, the feeling that makes you say, “Wow! I must be out of shape!” or “I feel muscles hurt in places I didn’t even know I had them!”

Share this:

While only a trained acupuncturist should treat you with acupuncture needles, you can use massage (acupressure) and some common points for self treatment at home. To treat yourself with acupressure, locate the desired point and use the tip of your thumb to apply sustained pressure to that area. Some commonly used points include:

Share this:

Our body naturally rids itself of toxins in several ways; through our kidneys, bowels, and through our skin when we sweat. Working up a sweat can be done through vigorous exercise or through Bikram-style yoga, but it can also be done in a less taxing way – with a treatment in an infrared sauna. At the COE, we employ this method of detoxification to eliminate environmental chemicals and release heavy metals like mercury and lead. But the benefits do not end there! Infrared sauna technology can also help you to lose weight, relieve joint discomfort, increase circulation, and purify your skin.